Arthur M. Jolly at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
The Free Republic of Bobistan was the script that started my career. I had taken a year off from flying helicopters to focus on writing - I planned to spend an entire year writing every day without worrying about sending anything out, trying to find an agent, or even drafting a query letter until the second year. I wrote five screenplays in that year, and it was one of the best years of my life. The first scripts were like everyone's first - but the fourth was a quarterfinalist in The American Screenwriting Competition, and the fifth I submitted to the Nicholl Fellowships. It won. I was very, very freaked out, but I got to stand at a podium and say "I'd like to thank the Academy" - to the Academy. We also had Kevin Smith as the keynote speaker that year - it doesn't get much better, even if the writer's strike following it all threw a bit of a wrench in my plans for a while!
L to R, Back Row: Sid Gannis, Buffy Shutt, Ron Mardigan, Dan Petrie Jr., Eve Marie Saint, Bob Shapiro, Susannah Grant and Kevin Smith
L to R, Front Row: Josh Schorr, Arthur M. Jolly, Stephanie Lord, Scott Simonson, Mark Matusof, Alfred Carpenter
The Free Republic of Bobistan is pure escapist fantasy - an All-American Oil Rig Worker, left behind on an abandoned rig, declares it a sovereign nation to save a Cuban refugee, and sparks an international crisis.
The screenplay was never made - although it has come close a few times. Producers who are interested can contact Toochis Rose at Brant Rose Agency, or just ask your assistant, who probably has it somewhere already.
Ron Mardigan and Arthur M. Jolly